Ukraine's SBU security service arrested a man at Kiev's airport who had a case containing radioactive uranium-238 in his car, the Emergencies Ministry said Tuesday. It said the man was detained at Boryspil airport, Ukraine's main international gateway, with 582 grams of uranium. It did not say when the arrest took place or whether he had been attempting to leave the country. "SBU officers detained the person who was moving a case with a radioactive substance -- Uranium-238 -- in his car," the ministry said in a statement. It said ministry specialists had seized the case. A ministry official said an investigation had been launched. SBU officials were not immediately available for comment.
They're busy beating a confession out of him.
Depleted uranium, where uranium-238 is normally found, can theoretically be used to make nuclear "dirty bombs," but it is often used in gun ammunition and armor because of its high density. Ukraine gave up its share of the Soviet nuclear arsenal after independence in 1991 but remains home to some of Europe's largest nuclear power stations. The country is trying to strengthen security and border controls as it now borders three member states of the enlarged European Union.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/02/2005 10:46:42 AM ||
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#1
Try and find something useful about depleted uranium on the internet. All you get is the "we are killing millions with atomic weapons" stuff.
I read about a guy who used it as weight in a scale model of a locomotive, because it weighs three times as much as lead, so it's good for traction. But he didn't glow in the dark.
So the stuff they found at the airport was depleted, meaning it has no more U-235 that can be extracted. U-235 is the stuff to make atomic bombs.
Does EVERYBODY have to be HYSTERICAL about radiation?
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/02/2005 11:36 Comments ||
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#2
Actually the most dangerous thing about uranium is its toxicity. Ingestion leads to symptoms not unlike lead or mercury poisoning.
#3
I worked at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for 2 years and now I work in a chemical plant. Most people here tell me they would never work at Oak Ridge because of the radiation. I always point out it is much more dangerous here. Chemicals like methyl iodide, hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide, acetic anhydride, et al, make this place much more dangerous. The response I get is "But the RADIATION! You might wake up with cancer or two heads!" The dangers of radiation are way overhyped.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/02/2005 11:45 Comments ||
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#4
TigerHawk blog has a nice piece about the multitude of animals and plants that thrive in the chernobyl area, now that the humans are gone...radiation doesn't seem to be creating any monsters.
#5
They say it was depeleted, maybe it was but maybe not. I hate being a conspiracy moonbat, but I doubt they would tell us otherwise.
and this draws a line under the question, how many others have got thru? sold on the black market? Plus it doesnt matter wether they get enough for a full fledged nuke or not. What matters is if they ever get a dirty bomb, and set it off in an American city.
I think Bush is scaring more than the islamists with his democracy push in the middle east. A few more dominoes fall, and our real enemies will get more desperate.
Ain't it the truth. I used to work at a nuclear power plant and would get much of the same. Funny how people freak out over nuke plants which have a safety record unequalled in the world (Soviet reactors notwithstanding), but drive past oil refineries and propane tanker trucks without so much as a care.
#8
Tom, I asked to do exactly that a couple of years ago, to check radiation levels on the ash heaps at a local coal-plant. The management wouldn't allow it.
For the rest of you, we are talking about radioactive impurities in coal, typically 1-3 ppm uranium and about twice that much thorium. These trace amounts are potentially capable of producing more energy than was produced by burning the coal in which they were contained. Since these are (very) heavy metals, they tend to become concentrated in the ash after the coal is burned, with the result that the coal-power industry is dumping something like 3000 tons of uranium and thorium into the environment every year in the United States alone.
Some scientists have actually suggested mining these ash heaps as a readily available source of nuclear fuel.
Imagine the howl from anti-nuke luddites and media-cultists if the nuclear industry dumped 1/1000 that much.
#9
...radiation doesn't seem to be creating any monsters.
all those japanese movies were wrong - radiation doesnt create monsters, it DOES cause cancer, of which there have been elevated rates around Chernobyl. I dont suppose anyone would notice higher cancer rates among wildlife, whose numbers are probably limited by habitat and plant food, not cancer.
None of which is to suggest that DU has issues anything like a Chernobyll style radiation leak.
#12
"I dont suppose anyone would notice higher cancer rates among wildlife, whose numbers are probably limited by habitat and plant food, not cancer."
Given the global focus on this area, and the constant high-profile demonization of nuclear power, it strikes me as virtually impossible that someone isn't monitoring wildlife for elevated cancer rates.
We know that wildlife is being monitored there. Why wouldn't this include routine checks for cancer?
Don't know where you live, but in Southern California, you've got refinery row in the Wilmington area and you've got San Onofre nuclear on the beach south of San Clemente.
Guess which site gets newspaper coverage like: "Southern California Edison's Temple of Doom"?
Perhaps you do care about propane tanker trucks. Good because you should. But the average citizen is far more worried about nuclear power.
#14
A few years ago, some crisis-dependant luddite NGO managed to turn alleged mutant frogs into a major issue before any qualified person actually checked their data, which turned out to indicate no change in rates of mutation.
The Chernobyl melt-down generated something like 50 billion curies of radioactive contamination. It would take 500,000 NERVA type nuclear rockets to produce that much, and they would all have to crash to release it, yet the very idea of nuclear rockets scares the living daylights out of the indoctrinated public.
#15
LH -- the anti-nuke freaks managed to put so many roadblocks in front of the plant under construction where I grew up that the utility company eventually gave up and converted it to coal. Only one or two of the opponents lived within thirty minutes of the plant -- its immediate neighbors were in favor of it!
During the conversion to coal, the utility bought out a couple hundred acres of land. That land had once been pasture, but was largely abandoned and going through reforestation. Now it's the dumping ground for coal ash -- which as noted above is slightly radioactive and has lots of nasty chemicals in it.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/02/2005 12:59 Comments ||
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#16
A C, same here. There is a HUGE ash pile I can see from my office window that comes from the coal fired generating plant on site. There is no monitoring of radiation levels even though the presence of these elements as well as radioactive carbon isotopes is well documented. Part of my job here is to comply with EPA standards but there is no EPA standard at all for monitoring or safely storing this stuff. At least at Oak Ridge everything was very closely monitored and disposed of properly. Well, at least it was burried.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/02/2005 12:59 Comments ||
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#17
Yah, i was focusing on the propane trucks - I get very nervous passing one on the road, and try to drive carefully around it.
I rather suspect that if you worked in the petroleum or petrochemical industry you would not be of the impression that theyre ignored by enviros. Ditto, its my understanding that its VERY difficult to get a new coal fired power plant permitted in a number of states.
#18
Yah, i was focusing on the propane trucks - I get very nervous passing one on the road, and try to drive carefully around it.
Well, yeah. But I don't do that anymore than I would for an equally large truck filled with bananas.
I will admit to being a bit nervous about the trucks I occasionally see carrying big reinforced tanks with "radioactive" and "corrosive" labels on them.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/02/2005 13:07 Comments ||
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#19
Of course, eco-luddites can only square their hatred of nuclear energy with their concern for global warming by resorting to various fantasies about wind and solar power.
If these are so great, why aren't they adopted on a commercial scale? Research into that possibility has been going on for 50 years, at a cost of billions of dollars. Where are the bottom-line results? If solar and wind are truly competitive, as their proponents claim, why don't eco-billionaires like Soros and Turner plow their billions into this new energy system instead of media stocks and oil futures?
The eco-luddite industry can anwwer this only with conspiracy theories about a vested interest in coal and oil, conspiracies for which they have yet to produce any real evidence, despite the allegation that these conspiracies have been universal among hundreds of firms, agencies and individuals for decades.
#20
Given the global focus on this area, and the constant high-profile demonization of nuclear power, it strikes me as virtually impossible that someone isn't monitoring wildlife for elevated cancer rates.
We know that wildlife is being monitored there. Why wouldn't this include routine checks for cancer?
I dont know AC. I went to the blog in question, and couldnt find the piece on Chernobyl. Ergo I dont know what he posted about animals - if theyre healthy, or just numerous, or just posted some pretty pictures. I think thats all research im obliged to do - whoever is making the case that Chernobyll is no biggie (which is quite different from saying that a US built light water reactor is no biggie, or that DU is no biggie) has the obligation to provide the date that support their case.
#22
Of course, eco-luddites can only square their hatred of nuclear energy with their concern for global warming by resorting to various fantasies about wind and solar power.
If these are so great, why aren't they adopted on a commercial scale? Research into that possibility has been going on for 50 years, at a cost of billions of dollars. Where are the bottom-line results? If solar and wind are truly competitive, as their proponents claim, why don't eco-billionaires like Soros and Turner plow their billions into this new energy system instead of media stocks and oil futures?
BP is, IIUC. IN fact though its Natural Gas thats been on the uptick for sometime in electricity generationin the US, IIUC, not coal or nuclear. Natural Gas is quite clean, green house gases aside (and theres no cost to a utility in emitting CO2 - its an externality, and not regulated like SO2, NO2, etc) - and is lower even on C02 per BTU than coal, IIUC.
#25
A bit off the original subject, but the answer is hydrogen! Except - wait a minute - you have to put more energy into hygrogen to extract it from water than you get by burning it. Is that the third law of thermodynamics? So a recent Scientific American article (I just look at the pictures) concluded the only practical way to go to hydrogen, long-term, is to start permitting a bunch of nukes to make the electricity. I ain't holdin' MY breath!
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/02/2005 14:22 Comments ||
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Posted by: Steven Den Beste ||
03/02/2005 15:14 Comments ||
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#27
However, faecal excretion of natural uranium from the diet is considerable (on average 500 μg per day, but very variable) and this needs to be taken into account.
Does this make anyone else a bit uncomfortable? We're talking a milligram of uranium every other day; more than a KILO in three years!
That's some heavy shit, ain't it?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/02/2005 15:23 Comments ||
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#28
RC, I didn't see that coming. LMAO
Posted by: Matt ||
03/02/2005 15:41 Comments ||
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#29
Perhaps you might want to take a tour of the Chernobyl area today. This lady has pictures and a story that was interesting to me.
I use lead. I am fastidious about cleaning up after working with it. Depleted Urainum isn't any differnet. You don't want to ingest either heavy metals are usually bad for you.
#30
LH, while much is made of the shift to natural gas, it is a relative shift, not an absolute shift. Energy production from oil, coal and nuclear all continue to increase, its just that the increase from NG is slighly higher.
#33
They allow hunting for deer on the DOE resevation near my domocile. All deer are checked by DOE for radiation, cancer etc. They allow the clean ones to be taken and consumed. They do keep some.
And there is a humourous story about radioactive frogs but thats for another page.
My experiance with DU is that its a low level alpha emmitter. Not dangerous unless injested or worse inhaled.
I would imagine you could sell it to someone with a geiger counter and say it was U238.
And DB is right about the chemicals. People would freak if they knew what the little diamond shaped signs meant that are attached the sides of trailers on the Interstates.
Dutch Report is a Nederlander blog in English that is doing some nice reporting on the trial of Theo Van Gogh's killer and related WoT issues.
Today newspaper AD reported that the spiritual leader of the Hofstad terror group, Redouan al Issar (AKA Redouan al Issa, AKA Abu Khaled) is in Syria. Suspected terrorist Samir Azzouz received a letter, while he was in jail, from an other suspected Hofstad terrorist. In the letter Samir gets greetings from Abu Khaled, the nickname of the Syrian. "He called from Syria to greet you" is written in the letter to Samir.
The police does not want to say if they know where Redouan al Issar is. But if he is in Syria, the justice department does not think the Syrian will hand him over to The Netherlands because we have no extradition treaty with them.
But there is more news. Amsterdam alderman Aboutaleb says he wants to talk with the members of the Hofstad terror group. It is said that the terror group also planned to assassinate the Moroccan Aboutaleb who is a practicing Muslim. But the alderman does not want to speak with Mohammed Bouyeri because he is suspected of the murder on Theo van Gogh. All members of the Hofstad terror group are all Moroccans, just like the Amsterdam Alderman. Aboutaleb is a frequent visitor of Morocco where he regularly meets with government officials.
This article starring:
ABU KHALED
Hofstad Group
MOHAMED BUYERI
Hofstad Group
REDUAN AL ISA
Hofstad Group
REDUAN AL ISAR
Hofstad Group
SAMIR AZZUZ
Hofstad Group
Theo van Gogh
Posted by: Seafarious ||
03/02/2005 12:06:33 AM ||
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By a slim majority, the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday barred the execution of persons convicted of committing crimes before turning 18... Perhaps the highest-profile case the ruling affects is that of convicted sniper Lee Boyd Malvo, who before Monday, faced at least one more capital murder trial in Virginia for his role in the October 2002 sniper shootings
Personally I'm not a big supporter of the death penalty for minors but in this case the majority of the SCOTUS has written a decision which isn't as good as a typical freshman college thesis.
Posted by: mhw ||
03/02/2005 8:52:41 AM ||
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#1
And I turned twenty-one in prison doing life without parole
No one could steer me right but mama tried, mama tried
Mama tried to raise me better but her pleading I denied
That leaves only me to blame cause mama tried.
--Merle Haggard
Malvo gets to spend his twenties in ADX Florence instead of getting a nice, clean needle? Suits me just fine.
#2
WAS TRYING TO POST THIS AS AN OPINION.
OPINION DOES NOT SEEM TO BE WORKING.
SEEMS RELAVANT HERE.
EXCUSE THE LENGTH
It is amazing to me that the greatest president of my lifetime, Ronald Reagan appointed a smarmy Eurocentric sycophant such as Anthony Kennedy to the supreme court. Whether on not one agrees that persons under 18 should be subject to the death penalty, the logic behind the decision which included references that are extra-constitutional bodes ill for our national sovereignty.
Our determination that the death penalty is disproportionate punishment for offenders under 18 finds confirmation in the stark reality that the United States is the only
country in the world that continues to give official sanction to the juvenile death penalty.
Just because we are the only democratic country that allows it does not mean that we are wrong. You yourself Justice Kennedy stated what this âjuvenile offenderâ did:
Before its commission Simmons said he wanted to murder someone. In chilling, callous terms he talked about his plan, discussing it for the most part with two friends,
Charles Benjamin and John Tessmer, then aged 15 and 16 respectively. Simmons proposed to commit burglary and murder by breaking and entering, tying up a victim, and throwing the victim off a bridge. Simmons assured his friends they could âget away with itâ because they were minors.
The three met at about 2 a.m. on the night of the murder, but Tessmer left before the other two set out. (The State later charged Tessmer with conspiracy, but dropped
the charge in exchange for his testimony against Simmons.)
Simmons and Benjamin entered the home of the victim, Shirley Crook, after reaching through an open window and unlocking the back door. Simmons turned on a hallway light. Awakened, Mrs. Crook called out, âWhoâs there?â In response Simmons entered Mrs. Crookâs bedroom, where he recognized her from a previous car accident
involving them both. Simmons later admitted this confirmed his resolve to murder her.
Using duct tape to cover her eyes and mouth and bind her hands, the two perpetrators put Mrs. Crook in her minivan and drove to a state park. They reinforced the
bindings, covered her head with a towel, and walked her to a railroad trestle spanning the Meramec River. There they tied her hands and feet together with electrical wire,
wrapped her whole face in duct tape and threw her from the bridge, drowning her in the waters below.
But then you excuse it, âOprah Winfreyâ style...
Three general differences between juveniles under 18 and adults demonstrate that juvenile offenders cannot with reliability be classified among the worst offenders.
First, as any parent knows and as the scientific and sociological studies respondent and his amici cite tend to confirm, â[a] lack of maturity and an underdeveloped sense of
responsibility are found in youth more often than in adults and are more understandable among the young. These qualities often result in impetuous and ill-considered
actions and decisions.â
Impetuous, you say, Justice Kennedy? So when someone hits the 18th birthday he is magically more culpable than he was the day before? Just as the politically correct say that only whites can be racist, you say that 17 years and 364 days old canât be gruesome in the commission of a murder and we have to understand his acts as âIll considered actionsâ of youth?
Ronald Reagan also appointed someone else, someone who has a much clearer American mind who seems a little ticked at his colleagues:
Justice Antonin Scalia gave us all pause for thought. He is giving voice to the growing concern of us regular American citizens, not some Euro-trash elites, that we are losing our national sovereignty by the inclusion of references to European law in decisions, and that the Supreme Court is setting itself up as an extra-legislative body.
The Court thus proclaims itself sole arbiter of our Nationâs moral standardsâand in the course of discharging that awesome responsibility purports to take guidance from
the views of foreign courts and legislatures. Because I do not believe that the meaning of our Eighth Amendment, any more than the meaning of other provisions of our Constitution, should be determined by the subjective views of five Members of this Court and like-minded foreigners, I dissent.
Heh heh heh... Does the wourd âouchâ belong here? I think so! Also, unlike the conciliatory âI respectfully dissentâ closure by Justice OâConnor, it was simply âI dissentâ
Now the liberals went into ecstasy when Justice Ginzburg concluded her opinion in Bush v. Gore, but no one seems to notice this. This is the way a member of the court says to the majority, âYou are nuts.â Very instructive. As was this remark:
Todayâs opinion provides a perfect example of why judges are ill equipped to make the type of legislative judgments the Court insists on making here. To support
its opinion that States should be prohibited from imposing the death penalty on anyone who committed murder before age 18, the Court looks to scientific and sociological
studies, picking and choosing those that support its position.
It never explains why those particular studies are methodologically sound; none was ever entered into evidence or tested in an adversarial proceeding.
Justice OâConnor, even though not able to sign on to Justice Scaliaâs smackdown of his colleagues, does understand a very cogent point. It helps that she was once an Arizona State Senator... Although it is probable that but for a few technicalities she might have signed up with the majority...
Without a clearer showing that a genuine national consensus forbids the execution of such offenders, this Court should not substitute its own âinevitably subjective judgmentâ on how best to resolve this difficult moral question for the judgments of the Nationâs democratically elected legislatures.
Justice Scalia concludes :
To allow lower courts to behave as we do, âupdatingâ the Eighth Amendment as needed, destroys stability and makes our case law an unreliable basis for the designing of laws by citizens and their representatives, and for action by public officials.
The result will be to crown arbitrariness with chaos.
In a comment yesterday, related to the ordered release of âDirty Bombâ Padilla by a Federal Judge in South Carolina, I remarked that if the judiciary continues to make unsound decisions that are out of touch with either the realities of a current situation, or are so alien to the society at large, they could begin to be ignored, and anarchy might ensue. Justice Scalia said it so much better and succinctly than I ever could.
#3
Malvo gets to spend his twenties in ADX Florence instead of getting a nice, clean needle? Suits me just fine.
I just don't like the co$t to keep him in prison. We will be paying a million dollars in the years that he sits in prison. Probably another million "rehabilitating" him.
#4
As a general rule, I'm not in favor of executing juvies, but when the merits of the case warrant, that leeway should be the call of the States and their legislature, not some foreign court precedent. This is bad news. I applaud Scalia.
#5
..Re:Malvo, as staisfying as it would be to personally stick the needle in his arm myself, I'm old enough to know that somewhere in the back of his twisted little mind, he may have welcomed death, knowing he wouldn't spend the rest of his life in a cell. Now...well, let's just say I think he might take care of things for us.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/02/2005 19:17 Comments ||
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#6
"...To support its opinion that States should be prohibited from imposing the death penalty on anyone who committed murder before age 18, the Court looks to scientific and sociological
studies, picking and choosing those that support its position."
Making the focus the age rather than premeditation and gravity of the crime. So what would happen to 17 year old sadistic murderers modeled after BTK-life in prison for repeated torture and murder? Does the sentence fit the crime? What has happened to our discernment and judgment?
#7
the liberal 5 on the SCOTUS have turned to Int'l law and ICC rulings rather than American laws and State laws. What todo? Stand for Bush's judges and eventually this gaggle of euro-whores will die/be replaced. Don't let the Chuck Schumers of the Senate have their way and remember this ruling every time you hear a Donk call Bush's picks: extremist
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/02/2005 19:56 Comments ||
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DETROIT, March 1 (UPI) -- A Michigan man pleaded guilty Tuesday in Detroit to providing material support to the terrorist organization called Hezbollah.
The Justice Department said Mahmoud Youssef Kourani, formerly of Dearborn, Mich., and Yater, Lebanon, organized and hosted meetings at his Dearborn residence during Ramadan in 2002.
So, was he a Lebanese who emigrated to Michigan, or a Michiganer who emigrated to Lebanon? A good reporter might have made that clear.
During the meetings, a guest speaker from Lebanon asked the participants to make donations to Hezbollah, the department said. The department said Hezbollah, also known as the "Party of God" and as "Islamic Jihad," among other names, is a worldwide terrorist network that has conducted numerous high profile terrorist attacks in the name of Islamic fundamentalism, the department said. The money solicited by Kourani's conspiracy was intended to support the terror group's "orphans of martyrs" program to benefit the families of those killed in terrorist operations, the department said.
The "Booming For Dollars" program.
Kourani faces a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine, to be followed by deportation to Lebanon. Sentencing is scheduled June 14.
This article starring:
MAHMUD YUSEF KURANI
Hezbollah
Hezbollah
Posted by: Steve ||
03/02/2005 8:44:13 AM ||
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Over repeated objections from the defense yesterday, a federal judge at the terror financing trial of a Yemeni sheik permitted a witness to describe his time at a desolate Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan and visits there by Osama bin Laden.
It was the spring of 2001, the witness, Yahya Goba, told the engrossed jurors. The trainees sang a welcoming song. Mr. bin Laden held forth "about the importance of unifying and jihad.
Technically, the witness had only a bit part in the Brooklyn trial where he made his appearance yesterday, testifying for the prosecutors at the trial of the sheik, Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad, who is charged with providing material support to Al Qaeda and Hamas.
But the repeated objections from the sheik's chief lawyer, William H. Goodman, made it evident that the defense saw the discussion of Mr. bin Laden, just as the testimony in the case is about to end, as inflammatory. Prosecutors are expected to call their last witness this morning.
"This is irrelevant to the defendant in this case," Mr. Goodman said on several occasions, arguing that the prosecutors were using a thin evidentiary reed to bring the image of Mr. bin Laden into the courtroom.
In short order yesterday, the judge, Sterling Johnson Jr., allowed the prosecutors to play to the jurors in Brooklyn federal court a videotape of the very visit by Mr. bin Laden to the training camp that Mr. Goba had described, a place where, he testified, jihad inductees were taught about weapons and explosives. The prosecutors do not claim that the sheik had any ties to the camp other than, they say, sponsoring a trainee.
Mr. Goba's appearance was the latest sign of an improvement in the fortunes of the prosecutors. In the weeks before the trial, the judge made several rulings against them that seemed to limit the evidence they could introduce. They also decided to forfeit testimony from their main informer, after he set himself on fire outside the White House.
But, in the end, the defense lawyers called the informer, Mohamed Alanssi. And Judge Johnson's decisions not to limit Mr. Goba's testimony were among several permitting the prosecutors to present essentially the case they originally said they wanted to present.
Judge Johnson has barred the defense lawyers from giving interviews to reporters, but before that ruling, several said they believed some of his rulings would present extensive grounds for appeal.
Mr. Goba was called by prosecutors to explain to the jurors the significance of a training-camp registration form found by American forces in Afghanistan. On the form introduced yesterday, a trainee listed Sheik Moayad as the man who had recommended him.
The defense had fought the introduction of the document. But, in a pivotal victory yesterday, prosecutors persuaded Judge Johnson to allow them to introduce not only the registration form, but also two other documents he had barred. Those documents show that two mujahedeen fighters in the Bosnian war in the 1990's carried the sheik's phone number in their address books.
The defense has said there is no evidence that Sheik Moayad even knew the training camp inductee or the Bosnian fighters.
But the prosecutors returned to the issue, noting that the defense had told jurors that the sheik had no inclination to participate in terrorist activities. The defense claims he was entrapped in hours of secretly videotaped conversations in which he talked about jihad and financing.
The prosecutors claimed that the entrapment argument opened the door for them to then present what proof they had about the sheik's prior ties. In his decision yesterday, Judge Johnson offered little explanation, other than saying he agreed with the prosecutors.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/02/2005 12:30:00 AM ||
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A Virginia man accused of joining Al Qaeda and plotting to assassinate President George W. Bush admitted his guilt and pondered hijackings similar to the Sept. 11 attacks, an FBI agent testified. The testimony came at a pretrial hearing Tuesday at which a federal magistrate said Ahmed Omar Abu Ali posed a "grave danger" and ordered that he remain jailed pending trial.
At least Hizzoner isn't nuts. Maybe he has kids.
Abu Ali, 23, was charged last week with providing support to Al Qaeda and conspiring to assassinate the president. Authorities allege that Abu Ali, who grew up in Virginia, joined Al Qaeda while studying in Saudi Arabia.
The Scenic Center of the Wonderful World of Terror™...
FBI agent Barry Cole testified that Abu Ali admitted many times that he joined Al Qaeda and discussed various potential acts, including a plan in which he would personally assassinate Bush. Cole said other plans included hijacking planes in Great Britain and Australia and using them as missiles to attack targets in the United States, a plan to free prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and a plan to destroy naval ships in US ports. "The defendant has in his own words indicated he is a grave, grave danger to this community and this nation," magistrate Liam O'Grady said after hearing Cole's testimony.
... if a bit grandiose in his objectives...
Defense attorney John Zwerling said the various plots that Cole described were "preposterous."
Attacking the WTC would have been described as "preposterous" on 9-10-2001...
"How is he going to free the brothers at Guantanamo? Is he going to take a rowboat? Doesn't that sound bizarre to you?" he asked Cole.
What's the percentage of al-Qaeda plots and plans and conspiracies that sound bizarre on first hearing? And on subsequent hearings? How about that one they had to boom the World Trade Center and cause it to fall over?
Zwerling claims the government obtained its confessions through torture, and that four attorneys had seen scars on Abu Ali's back that the defendant says were inflicted by Saudi authorities. Zwerling said after the hearing that he has more evidence to confirm claims of torture, but he would not discuss specifics.
My heart bleeds...
O'Grady said he would reconsider his ruling in keeping the defendant in custody if the defense could offer more evidence about statements made last year by FBI Assistant Director Michael Mason. He told a Muslim audience in northern Virginia that he believed the government had no interest in prosecuting Abu Ali and that he might soon be released. O'Grady called Mason's comments disturbing, and Zwerling said the comments are evidence that the government did not believe it had a case.
Either that, or that they didn't think they could make one at the time.
Cole testified that he interviewed Abu Ali over four days in September 2003. He said Abu Ali initially demanded a lawyer but changed his mind after agents told him that he could be prosecuted by Saudi authorities or held as an enemy combatant. Cole, a counterterrorism agent, said Abu Ali's confessions are supported by the admissions of an Al Qaeda cell leader in Saudi Arabia who surrendered to authorities. Cole said the Al Qaeda cell leader gave Abu Ali money to purchase a laptop computer and cell phone. Cole also testified that Abu Ali discussed with him plans to assassinate members of Congress. No further details were offered.
That's a bit more achievable goal than bumping off the President...
Cole said the Al Qaeda leaders gave Abu Ali two options: He could either become part of a martyr operation or he could establish a cell in the United States and he would "marry a Christian woman, assimilate into the community and he would be provided operatives."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/02/2005 12:27:06 AM ||
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#1
There are two ominous factors that threaten all U.S. citizens in this article. First, by authority of the Patriot Act/Homeland Security any one of us could be arrested and transported to Saudi Arabia or some other humanitarian nation for testimony procured through torture. Such arrest can be secret and in complete violation of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Second, the accusation of being an "enemy combatant" (in the absence of a declared war) strips the accused of ALL due process which can (and may already have) lead to summary and secret executions. It appears that the war on terrorism is over and the terrorists have won. I believe the case against Ahmed Omar Abu Ali could have and would have been more substantial and credible had all of his Constitutional protections of due process been afforded him. What happens when we have Hillary Clinton using this power against her real and imagined political opponents?
Posted by: Tom Fiedler ||
03/02/2005 22:30 Comments ||
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25.2.2005 at 1700 UTC in position 06:43.98N - 050:35.71E, Somalia. A speedboat followed a general cargo ship underway. After 15 minutes chase boat moved away.
24.02.2005 0430 LT at Hon Gai inner anchorage, Vietnam. Robbers boarded a chemical tanker preparing to berth. They stole ship's stores and escaped.
22.2.2005 at 0530 LT in position: 07:49N - 076:50E, off Trivandrum, SW coast of India. Two fishing boats approached a tug towing an ocean going crane barge. One boat came alongside the barge and four robbers boarded and started lowering ship's stores from deck. Alert crew mustered and robbers escaped empty handed.
Posted by: Pappy ||
03/02/2005 12:28:17 AM ||
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Philippine police said on Wednesday they defused three bombs disguised as mobile phones at a shopping mall in General Santos, two weeks after a deadly blast in the southern port city on Valentine's Day.
Police said the bombs were designed to cause fires. Possible motives included extortion, a business rivalry and an attack by Muslim militants, they said.
The discovery on Tuesday evening sent security forces on full alert after three bombings on Feb. 14 killed 13 people in Manila's business district, General Santos and Davao, another port city on the troubled southern island of Mindanao.
"Vigilant sales staff alerted us about the bombs after a mobile phone was found in the pocket of a pair of pants on display," Chief Superintendent Antonio Billiones, the police chief of the southern part of Mindanao, told reporters.
Bomb-sniffing dogs found two similar devices on the second floor of the KCC mall in General Santos, hidden under stacks of shirts and jeans in the menswear section.
No group has claimed responsibility for the mobile phone bombs, which investigators said smelled of kerosene.
Police set up checkpoints in five southern cities -- General Santos, Davao, Cotabato, Zamboanga and Cagayan de Oro --which intelligence officials said were known targets for militants.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/02/2005 12:28:11 AM ||
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The head of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards has warned that 190,000 US troops stationed close to the Islamic republic could be targetted if Iran were attacked, a report said Wednesday.
"More than 190,000 members of American forces are scattered in Afghanistan and Iraq. If the US carries out its threats against Iran, they nust know that all these forces will be within our reach," Yahya Rahim Safavi told the ultra-hardline Ya Lessarat newspaper.
"The US and the Zionist regime (Israel) do not have the power to confront us and we will hand them bone-breaking blows," Safavi said, adding that "Iraq is getting more unsafe everyday for America" anyway.
He also warned that if "the Zionist regime had a satanic thought and attacked Iran, we would not leave one point safe in the entire Zionist territory".
The United States and Israel both accuse Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, and have not ruled out military options to prevent the clerical regime of acquiring the bomb.
#3
Are the MMs starting to believe their own propaganda. Do they believe they could sustain a multi front war that they would have to start against the kind of war we could wage on them? We already have invaded. We have their kids using our Internet You can't keep them down on the farm once they have seen the big city. Iran will fall from the inside. The more the MMs tighten their restriction the more the youth will resist at some point things will tip and the MMs will find themselves hanging from the boom of a crane.
#6
Well, what else is the head of the Revolutionary Guard going to say? Mr. Safavi, what we're offering should be considered. If you act now, we will give you a one-time only opprotunity to meet Allah. All you have to do is keep saying things like that. Think it over.
#9
"...190,000 US troops a target if Iran attacked." 190,000 comprising four of the best, most powerful, combat hardened Divisions equipped with weapons six generations more advanced than anything Iran has, and capable of inflicting a rate of 20-1 or better combat casualties on any enemy on the planet. I suppose if Iran is willing to suffer 3.8 MILLION casualties in a war with *just* these four Divisions, that's all well and good. But they might consider that these four Divisions can be readily resupplied and replaced by fresh Divisions of equal lethality. Last but not least, figure that ONE such Division can neutralize the entire Iranian army, and ONE more can neutralize the entire Iranian Revolutionary Guard. That leaves TWO Divisions to hunt down mullahs and hang them from light poles.
#10
I think they've forgotten the lesson Reagan administered in the late '80's - sinking big chunks of the Iranian Navy, at a time when the mullahs were armed with relatively new American stuff inherited from the Shah.
#11
Iran has already targeted our troops in the Middle East. Does anybody seriously believe none of our boys in the Middle East have died at the hands of the mad mullahs?
#12
Also Anonymoose, I'm quite sure Diego Garcia is back up to 100% stock of droppables for the BUFF's, B-2's etc. I saw the aftermath of Arc Light raids in Desert Storm, Afghanistan, and again in OIF, so hopefully the Farsians will REALIZZZE (Ebonics word)
#14
The head of Iranâs powerful Revolutionary Guards has warned that 190,000 US troops stationed close to the Islamic republic could be targetted if Iran were attacked, a report said Wednesday.
And they're gonna target our troops with what? Bluster?
Iraq had the "elite" Republican Guard -- didn't do them much good, did it?
Let me quote Brig.Gen. Vincent Brooks on 2003-Apr-02: "The Baghdad Division has been destroyed." Not degraded, not defeated, destroyed. Referring to the other Republican Guard units, he then said: "They're in serious trouble, and they remain in contact now with the most powerful force on Earth."
#19
The Mother of All Battles î is a registered service mark of Hussein al Tikriti. Continued use of this mark without payment of licensing fees will result in a stern letter from my attorney.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/02/2005 20:18 Comments ||
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#21
"The US and the Zionist regime (Israel) do not have the power to confront us and we will hand them bone-breaking blows,"
This guy is so full of crap that I would recommend that whomever pushes the launch button to take him out do so using their left hand.
Posted by: Tom ||
03/02/2005 20:27 Comments ||
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#22
Be very careful, Frank G. You aren't talking to Aris, now.
March 1, 2005: Without much publicity, France has moved the replenishment ship Var to the eastern Mediterranean. The Var contains facilities for running commando operations, as well as facilities for about 200 commandoes and their equipment. France apparently believes that the situation in Lebanon is going to get out of control. Since World War II, France has been something of a big brother for Lebanon, especially the Lebanese Christians. This particular relationship goes back some 800 years, to the time of the Crusades. Currently, the Lebanese are out in the streets protesting the continued presence of Syrian troops in the country. If France is going to get involved, it won't be with a lot of troops. But you can do a lot with a hundred or so commandoes. The Var has previously supported French commandoes operating in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/02/2005 9:40:50 AM ||
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#1
Someone ought to grab onto the Crusades angle on this French deployment and they would probably withdraw.
France apparently believes that the situation in Lebanon is going to get out of control.
Where have the French been for the past 30 years? Lebanon has been under the Syrian boot, which is out of control for over a generation.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/02/2005 11:20 Comments ||
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#2
They need a large ship to carry the white flags they will need for upcoming military operations.
#4
The frogs plan to occupy Lebannon before we do. Sort of like when their historic allies the Ruskies took Pristina airport under Weasly Clarks eyes. Fortuantely Gen. Mattis is in theater instead of the political General.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
03/02/2005 11:32 Comments ||
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#7
Perhaps someone on Rantburg with more schoolinâ than I have will correct me, but IIRC France created this whole mess by making vague and duplicitous deals with the ruling tribes/factions in Lebanon and Syria while they both were under Franceâs âmandateâ. I seemed to recall that France set up some tenuous 3-way power sharing deal in Lebanon (playing all sides against the other) and gave several ambiguous assurances to Syria that the Syrians would have âinfluenceâ in Lebanon.
I would say, let France sort out their own post-colonial mess. Except, everything France touches turns to sh*t and everyone else has it flung on them by the wind moving machine.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/02/2005 14:16 Comments ||
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#10
Psycho Hillbilly, Good Sam Ervin impression.
I think this amounts to that stupid cowboy George Bush letting France get the headlines while we do the heavy lifitng. OK with me if it fixes the problem. Even better if the frogs f^*& it up.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
03/02/2005 14:29 Comments ||
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#11
Note to self: Ask Mr.Davis to slap Mrs.Davis for calling Bush a "stupid cowboy".
#18
Psycho, France created this mess in 1920 by forming Greater Lebanon. As a result the Christian population in Lebanon dropped from 85 per cent to 54 per cent once the new areas were added to the new region of Lebanon's Mountain. The creation of Greater Lebanon would contribute to their fall 70 years later, with the addition of those Muslim populated areas, and the subsequent higher moslem birthrates and higher christian emigration rates.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/02/2005 16:50 Comments ||
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#20
cote d'iovire was a mess before they went in - a civil war. Lebanon is a situation where everybody seems united in wanting the Syrians out, and wanting to preserve the progress Lebanon has made. They just need somebody there to avoid the dangerso of a power vacummn, till it becomes clear that everyone trusts the Lebanese Army. A different mission.
I have no reason to think that man for man the French army is much inferior to our own. The problem is political determiniation of grand strategy, and here they have an interest in stability, as does everyone else.
#21
"I have no reason to think that man for man the French army is much inferior to our own."
I gotta disagree. I do think they are inferior man for man to the US military, as are all other military organizations. Not in the sense that they will disgegard orders or lack bravery, or anything like that. I'm sure that they will willingly die to the last man, or fight until told to retreat. But they would be combat ineffective in comparison with the US. Weaponry deficiant, support deficient, transport and logistics deficient. Heavy equipment immobile due to lack of heavy lift. Air force and Navy laughable compared to the US, even in a boat for boat comparison, and notwithstanding weight of forces. General lack of initiative in NCOs and junior officers.
Certainly you don't think that a similar and equivalent operation/ambush in a country like, say, Somalia, involving French troops instead of US troops would have resulted in anything less than a complete massacre?
Posted by: Mark E. ||
03/02/2005 17:20 Comments ||
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#22
As much as I dislike the French I hope that they will serve a useful purpose while Lebanon gets on its feet. If this shows a united front between the US and Europe it will be good for us and bad for the Muslim terrorist.
#23
Ask Mr.Davis to slap Mrs.Davis for calling Bush a "stupid cowboy".
Shellback, there's a loooong line of people waiting to talk to Mr. Davis, so move to the back. He disappeared over a year ago, apparently due to his involvement in some sort of menage involving the original Murat of Turkey and Miss Gentle, a university student in one of the Gulf countries. Mr. Wife has been keeping an eye out for him during business trips, but as yet no sign. Should you find him first, please drop a note to Mrs. D. care of Rantburg, as she has a great deal to say to what's left of him after our lovely Rantburg gentlemen get through with him (we all know better than to allow Mr. D. to fall into the hands of the Rantburg womenfolk). Thank you.
Despite the fall of the Syrian-backed government, the regime of President Bashar Assad remains determined to stay in Lebanon. Lebanese opposition sources said Syria has not demonstrated any intention of withdrawing either its troops or more than 1 million laborers from Lebanon. The sources said Syrian intelligence has increased its presence around Beirut and was preparing a campaign to undermine stability in the country. On Monday, Lebanon's pro-Syrian government resigned amid massive anti-Syrian protests outside parliament. Prime Minister Omar Karameh would continue to oversee a caretaker government. "Today the government fell," opposition leader Elias Atallah said. "Tomorrow, it's the one huddled in Anjar."
Question for persons more knowlegeable than me: Who keeps the keys to Ein-el-Hellhole?
Posted by: Fred ||
03/02/2005 8:06:56 PM ||
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#1
The guy with the most guns and nuts behind him in the camp?
In all seriousness, el-Hellhole has always struck me as more of a quarantine zone for the Paleos than it is a dungeon. Think of it as a case in which the inmates are running the asylum ...
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/02/2005 3:14 Comments ||
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#2
sigh - the surprise decision to disband the government seemed too good to be true. I hope it wasn't an lame attempt to take the steam out of the protests only for Assad to hand pick the new one once his thugs are in place.
#11
After the barracks weas bombed and BEFORE we departed Lebenon, we gave the Bekka Valley a good dose of aerial bombing. Not sure if that made us even, but it sure made the military feel a whole lot better.
#17
Hey Mr. Blix. Better be careful if we bomb the Bekka now. We may set off some of Saddam's ole sotckpile -ya the stockpile! you myopic woosie Swede.
TRIPOLI: The hometown of outgoing Prime Minister Omar Karami was thrown into a panic Tuesday, one day after his resignation, as gunmen drove through the streets firing weapons into the air. Parents in the port city of Tripoli rushed to pull their children out of schools, which closed along with banks, other businesses and universities after leaflets calling for a general strike were distributed. The leaflets said: "We are calling for a general strike in Tripoli ... in order to confront the plot of the opposition ... which is seeking to burn all of Lebanon."
The main squares and internal roads of the northern city were swarming with Internal Security Forces personnel Tuesday, while the army set up several checkpoints, including one at the northern entrance of Tripoli, in the Bab al-Tabbaneh area. Karami supporters toured the city with loudspeakers to call for massive participation in Fadi Ahmed's funeral, the Karami supporter killed after the premier announced his resignation late Monday. A first report said Ahmed, 22, was killed when gunshots were fired across the city as hundreds of angry Karami followers vandalized the offices of opposition parties, including that of slain former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The administration of the Islamic Charity Hospital, where Ahmed was rushed for treatment, staged a protest on hospital premises in support of Karami and strongly denounced Ahmed's death.
However, disputing the original description of events, the Tal-based ISF station reported Tuesday that Ahmed was killed by his own brother over personal differences. A source at the station denied the previous statement that an unidentified party had shot him from the rooftop of a building facing Karami's residence. Ahmed's brother managed to escape, the ISF said, adding that a statement will soon be released confirming the latest version of the murder, according to investigations and eyewitnesses.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/02/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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A day after forcing the Syrian-backed government to resign, Lebanese protesters returned to the streets of Beirut yesterday, this time demanding the withdrawal of Syrian troops from the country. Politicians began a complicated search for a new premier after two weeks of unprecedented protests forced the government of Prime Minister Omar Karami to step down. Market fears of a political vacuum put the Lebanese pound under intense pressure, forcing the central bank to dip deeply into its foreign exchange reserves to defend the currency.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice welcomed what she called moves to restore democracy in Lebanon. "Events in Lebanon are moving in a very important direction," she said in London. "The Lebanese people are starting to express their aspirations for democracy... This is something that we support very much." Rice and French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier repeated calls for Syria to withdraw its 14,000 troops from Lebanon. Such calls have grown louder since the Feb. 14 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Washington and Paris, cosponsors of Security Council Resolution 1559 demanding an end to foreign interference in Lebanon, called for general elections planned for May to be free and fair and suggested international assistance. "They must have the opportunity to chart their own course through free and fair parliamentary elections this spring, bolstered by an international observer presence prior to and during the elections," the countries said in a joint statement.
The Lebanese opposition found a supporter in the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad ibn Khalifa Al-Thani. The emir hailed the Lebanese people for forcing the resignation of their government, but also praised the government for stepping down. "I think the Arab people salute (the fact) that the Lebanese people were able to bring down a government, (but) also salute the government which agreed to fall in the interest of the Lebanese people," he told reporters after a meeting with visiting German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/02/2005 8:11:11 PM ||
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CROSSFIRE-Outlaw leader killed
KUSHTIA, Mar 1: An outlawed party leader was killed in a shootout between police and their accomplices at Charmilpara area in the town early today (Tuesday), reports UNB.
Wonderful, I was beginning to have "crossfire" withdrawl
Police said acting on secret information they raided Ratulpara village in sadar upazila and arrested the leader of outlawed Gono Muktifouja and military commander of local ''Kota Bahini'' Ijjat Ali,38 on Monday. According to his confession when police reached the spot for recovering arms at about 5am, the cohorts of Ijjat opened fire on them in a bid to snatch him, forcing police to fire back. Ijjat was caught in the shootout when he tried to flee and died on the spot.
Covered all the talking points in two sentences; confession, recovering arms, 5am, the Dread Cohorts of Ijjat, shootout, attemped fleeing, crossfire, dead suspect.
Several rounds of bullet were recovered from the scene.
Well, at least one.
Ijjat was an accused of eight cases including murder, police said.
RAB arrest Chittagong top terror Nasir
Nasir, a most wanted criminal of Chittagong, was nabbed by elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) from Jatrabari area in Dhaka city Monday night, reports BDNEWS. A notorious criminal Nasir, widely known as Gittu Nasir, is accused in over a dozen of criminal cases including murders. An Islami Chhatra Shibir cadre, Nasir, was wanted in a case for killing eight Chhatra League activists by brushfire. He is also an accused in a case involving the killing of a ward commissioner in the port city. Acting on a tip off, a team of RAB-7, deployed in Chittagong region, apprehended Nasir from a house at Dholaikhal in the capital. Later, the black strikers took him to Chittagong to catch his (Nasir) accomplices and recover deadly weapons in his custody.
"Come with us Nasir, we're going to get your guns" "Uh oh, you gonna kill me?" "Don't know, you'll have to check tomorrows paper"
Colonel Chowdhury Fazlul Bari, second-in-command of RAB, confirmed the arrest.
Dacoity case against four babies in Chittagong
The High Court on Tuesday issued rule suo moto upon government officials to explain in two weeks why the dacoity case against four infants should not be quashed and direction given for punishment of the prosecutors, reports UNB. When some lawyers drew attention of the court to newspaper reports on Tuesday with photograph of four babies in parents' laps appearing before the CMM court of Chittagong on Monday, it issued the rule against nine people including Home Secretary, IGP, DC, CMM of Chittagong and police officers concerned. Bench comprising Justice AK Badrul Huq and Justice M Fazlur Rahman also ordered OC of Kotwali thana, Chittagong, investigation officer, complainant and informant of the case to appear before them in person on March 8. On perusal of the report the judges were apparently surprised and annoyed.
"You arrested who? They're how old? WTF, over?"
The lawyers submitted that the police officials prosecuted the babies by abusing power and they deserve punishment and the victims should be compensated. UNB Chittagong correspondent reports that Hajee Samiruddin of Golap Singh Road in the city filed a dacoity case on February 7 accusing ten neighbours including four babies Sagar (2), Riday (4 months), Durjoy (1) and Bijoy (3 months). Police prosecuted them along with their parents.
"Hey Sarge, we supposed to arrest the babies too?" "Yeah, that's what the paperwork sez. It don't make no sense to me, but orders is orders"
The magistrate granted them bail when they were produced before the court on Monday. The high-ups in the Law Ministry told UNB Tuesday night that they have taken up the matter seriously. "We are equally surprised. We are looking into the mater to find out who abused or misused the power. Minors are immune from prosecution under the law guaranteed by the Constitution," said a senior official.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/02/2005 10:08:51 AM ||
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#1
Tales of the Bangladesh Police Gazette, the Crossfire Gazette, and Nuggets from the Urdu Press fill in nicely the void caused by the catastrophic loss of quality reporting and rants of the KCNA.
The case against the "infinks," as Popeye would say, is a honorable runner-up to a Rantburg Classic.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/02/2005 11:00 Comments ||
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The month of February saw the police outnumbering the Rapid Action Battalion in 'crossfire' incidents. Odhikar, a human rights coalition, in its monthly report published on Tuesday, said during the 28 days of the month, 34 persons were killed by the law enforcing agencies. Thirty suspected criminals got killed in 'crossfire'. Of them 28 were killed where the police were involved and the rest two died during exchange of fire between the RAB and the criminals, the report said. The remaining four persons died in various jails, added the Odhikar report.
Interesting, the Bangladesh press has not been giving us many "crossfire" stories recently. I wonder why?
They've noticed the spotlight you're shining on them?
Besides the 'crossfire' killings and the deaths in the jails, the period also witnessed another 31 people killed and 879 injured in political violence, the report said, and added that a total of 304 people were arrested, and two were abducted on political issues, in violation of human rights. In February, a journalist named Belaluddin was killed in a bomb attack in Khulna, 24 journalists were injured across the country, five were arrested and five were sued, said the report. It also added that 36 journalists across the country were threatened with death by different quarters.
Well, that answers my question. The reporters must have gotten the message that some people didn't like those "crossfire" stories.
According to the report, 42 women and children were raped, and of them nine were killed after being raped during the same period, while eight women, four men and one child sustained acid burn injuries. The Odhikar report also said that in January, 58 people were killed by the law enforcers, out of which 55 were victims of 'crossfire' by the RAB and police. In January, 41 people were killed and 697 injured in political violence and 304 were arrested for political reasons, the report said. During the period, 50 women and children were raped, and of them 13 were killed after being raped, the report added. The report said 33 people, including 4 children, fell victim to dowry-related violence across the country, out of which 12 were killed, 20 were oppressed and one committed suicide.
The depression level in the Bangladesh government Tourist Office must be something aweful.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/02/2005 9:56:19 AM ||
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#1
The shift to going after "radical Islamists" is having an effect?
JOYPURHAT, Mar 1: Police of the northern districts have engaged its all strengths in arresting Sirajul Islam alias Bangla Bhai, chief of the militant organisation JMJB and his supreme leader Abdur Rahman, and other members of AHAB, JMB and JMJB, reports BSS. Members of outlawed extremist organisations Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB), Jamaatul Mujaheed in Bangladesh (JMB) and Purbo Banglar Communist Party (PBCP) have gone into hiding as the law-enforcing agencies launched a massive hunt in the northern districts.
Five more suspected JMB leaders were arrested from Joypurhat on Monday and four of them granted four-day police remand Tuesday afternoon by a magistrate court in Joypurhat. The number of arrested, including Dr Muhammad Asadullah Al Ghalib, rose to 63 in the northern region so far, police sources said. According to the sources, Kalai thana police of Joypurhat arrested vice-president of the Joypurhat unit of Ahle Hadith Andolan Bangladesh (AHAB) Anisur Rahman, 40, secretary Khalilur Rahman, 33, two imams of two mosques Mostafa Ali, 32, and Salimullah 32, and Ahle Hadith Madrasha Super of Kalai Golam Mostafa, 35, on Monday.
The court granted four-day police remand for each of the first four persons and Golam Mostafa was sent to jail hazat under section 54 of CrPC, the sources said. Meanwhile, five arrested Golam Mostafa, 22, Deloar Hossain, 26, Salahuddin, 32, Enamul Haq, 22, and Sirajul Islam, 32, of Joypurhat were sent to jail hazat Monday afternoon. Of them, Enamul Haque, 22, and Serajul Islam, 32, gave confessional statements under section-164 about their direct involvement in the JMB activities, police sources said.
A total of 63 suspected militant outfits have so far been arrested in connections with the recent bomb and grenade incidents in the region from different places of Joypurhat, Naogaon, Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj, Natore, Sirajganj, Bogra, Gaibandha, Rangpur, Dinajpur and Thakurgaon districts. Other law-enforcing agencies are also working round the clock to nab these suspects, the sources said. Some frontier villagers apprehended that Bangla Bhai might have fled to the neighbouring country. But, police could not confirm such apprehension. The law and order improved in the region, the sources said.
UNB from Thakurgaon adds: A suspected Islamist militant was arrested from Jibanpur village in Haripur upazila on Tuesday. Monirul Islam, a teacher of Kuchgaon Primary School, was arrested at 10am as he is a "listed militant" of Haripur, Officer-in-Charge of the thana Moniruzzaman said. "I was a member of local Jamaat-e-Islami, but I left the party as Jamaat-e-Islami supported women's leadership after the general election in 2001"; Monirul told local journalists after his arrest.
Doesn't like giving women power, huh?
Nine suspected militants have so far been arrested in this district.
This article starring:
ANISUR RAHMAN
Ahle Hadith Andolan Bangladesh
BANGLA BHAI
Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh
DELOAR HUSEIN
Ahle Hadith Andolan Bangladesh
DR MUHAMAD ASADULLAH AL GHALIB
Jamaatul Mujaheed in Bangladesh
ENAMUL HAQ
Ahle Hadith Andolan Bangladesh
ENAMUL HAQUE
Ahle Hadith Andolan Bangladesh
GOLAM MOSTAFA
Ahle Hadith Andolan Bangladesh
KHALILUR RAHMAN
Ahle Hadith Andolan Bangladesh
MONIRUL ISLAM
Jamaatul Mujaheed in Bangladesh
MOSTAFA ALI
Ahle Hadith Andolan Bangladesh
Purbo Banglar Communist Party
SERAJUL ISLAM
Ahle Hadith Andolan Bangladesh
SIRAJUL ISLAM
Ahle Hadith Andolan Bangladesh
SIRAJUL ISLAM
Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh
Ahle Hadith Andolan Bangladesh
Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh
Jamaat-e-Islami
Jamaatul Mujaheed in Bangladesh
Posted by: Steve ||
03/02/2005 9:48:41 AM ||
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President Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine has outlined a schedule for the withdrawal of 1,650 Ukrainian troops from Iraq, starting later this month. He said the Ukrainian contingent - the sixth largest in the US-led coalition - would leave in three stages between mid-March and October. Their deployment in 2003 was seen as an attempt by former President Leonid Kuchma to improve ties with the US. The troops are under command of Polish forces, which are also due to withdraw. Mr Yushchenko said 150 Ukrainian soldiers would leave in the first group around 15 March, followed by a group of 590 and the remainder by 15 October. He said his government had taken into consideration public opinion in both Iraq and Ukraine and concluded that the "war situation in Iraq has changed", according to French news agency AFP.
You can read that as either he thinks things are going downhill or things are getting better.
Seventeen Ukrainian peacekeepers have been killed in Iraq since their deployment in 2003. In January eight Ukrainian and one Kazakh servicemen were killed while defusing a bomb. Poland, which has the third-largest contingent in Iraq after the US and Britain, says it is likely to withdraw from Iraq in 2005, but no specific date has been given.
Sorry to see you go, but thanks for your help. We will remember that you did come when needed.
#1
Boy, and I was just starting to think there was some good news coming out of the middle east. Thank you, BBC, for pointing out how what few friends we have are abandoning us. Every silver lining has a cloud. (I made that up a long time ago, but can't make the little copyright symbol).
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/02/2005 8:49 Comments ||
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#2
Well, Yushchenko campaigned on this (and other things) last year, so it's no surprise. Actually, I believe Yanukovych said he would keep the troops in, if elected. Still, it's probably better that Yushchenko won, and certainly better that Ukraine has more honest elections than Washington and Wisconsin.
#8
These guys actually accomplished something in Iraq, unlike the Koreans, who not only got there late, but have been hunkered down at their base camp in Kurdistan for the entire period they've been in-country.
A judge on the special tribunal that will put Saddam Hussein and members of his former regime on trial was assassinated Tuesday in the Iraqi capital, according to an Iraqi police official and a media report.
Judge Barwez Mohammed Mahmoud and a relative were killed in northern Baghdad's Azamyiah district, the official told The Associated Press early Wednesday on condition of anonymity.
Al-Arabiya, the Dubai-based satellite TV news network, reported that the judge and his son died in the attack. The network said the men were killed near their house in northern Baghdad. The New York Times reported that the son, Aryan Mahmoud, was a lawyer with the tribunal.
The assassination came as thousands of mostly black-clad Iraqis protested outside a medical clinic in Hillah, a city 60 miles south of the capital where a suicide car bomber killed 125 people a day earlier.
The protesters, braving the threat of another attack as they waved clenched fists, condemned foreign fighters and chanted ``No to terrorism!''
Police prevented people from parking cars in front of the clinic or the hospital, where authorities blocked hospital gates with barbed wire to stave off hundreds of victims' relatives desperate for information on loved ones.
Insurgents, fighting both American forces and the Iraqi government, released a video Tuesday of French journalist Florence Aubenas, 43, kidnapped nearly two months ago. The 43-year-old correspondent for the French daily Liberation appeared alone in front of a maroon-colored background, pleading for help.
The video of the French journalist, who disappeared Jan. 5, was dropped off at the Baghdad offices of an international news agency. There was no indication of when the tape was made.
``Please help me, my health is very bad,'' she said in English. ``Please, it's urgent now. I ask especially Mr. Didier Julia, the French deputy, to help me.''
Julia, a lawmaker from French President Jacques Chirac's governing party, led a botched effort to free two French reporters taken hostage in Iraq last year. Those reporters have since been released.
The judges on the special tribunal have not even been identified in public because of concerns for safety, but Mahmoud was apparently the first one to die in Iraq's insurgency. Officials with the Iraqi government and the Iraqi special tribunal couldn't be reached before dawn Wednesday for comment.
Mahmoud's role on the tribunal was unclear, but the law establishing it called for up to 20 investigative judges and up to 20 prosecutors. It also said the tribunal would have one or more trial chambers, each with five judges.
The killings came just one day after five former members of Saddam Hussein's regime - including one of his half brothers - were referred to trial for crimes against humanity.
The announcement Monday by the tribunal marked the first time that the special court issued referrals, similar to indictments, which are the final step before trials can start.
Saddam was captured in December 2003, and others have been in custody for nearly two years.
U.S. military officials transferred 12 of the top defendants to Iraqi custody in June with the handover of sovereignty. They're being held at an undisclosed location near Baghdad International Airport, west of the capital.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terror group, which has repeatedly seized foreigners and attacked Americans, purportedly claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing in Hillah. It was not possible to independently verify the claim, which was posted on the Internet.
The group said it targeted recruits for the Iraqi security services, whom it referred to as ``apostates,'' but did not mention those killed in a nearby market. The car bomb went off at a site where police and army recruits were lining up for physicals exams at the medical clinic.
In Hillah, relatives and friends screamed and wailed as they gathered around lists of the dead and wounded that were posted on hospital walls. Relatives who came to identify the dead placed corpses into coffins and loaded them onto pickup trucks to take them away for burial.
Fears that insurgents would target Shiite mourners forced authorities to cancel an elaborate funeral procession for some of the victims of Monday's attack, the deadliest since the insurgency began two years ago.
``I am afraid there might be a suicide bomber among the demonstrating crowd,'' said 30-year-old Ahmed al-Amiry. ``It's very possible.''
But anxieties over another attack did not prevent more than 2,000 people from gathering outside the clinic Tuesday, shouting ``No to terrorism!'' and ``No to Baathism and Wahhabism!'' and demanding the resignation of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.
Wahhabism was a clear reference to foreign fighters who are supporters of al-Qaida and adherents of the strict Wahhabi form of Islam, which is the version practiced in Saudi Arabia. The Jordanian-born Zarqawi, the country's most feared terrorist, claims to be affiliated with Osama bin Laden's organization.
The Baath party was the political organization that ran Iraq under Saddam Hussein.
Although Monday's attack was directed at recruits, most of the victims were Shiites. Insurgents have increasingly targeted gatherings of Shiites, who make up 60 percent of Iraq's population, in an apparent effort to start a sectarian war.
The Shiites have refrained from striking back, mostly at the behest of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who wants nothing to impede the Shiites from gaining political power in Iraq.
Nominally disbanded Shiite militias could easily field thousands of tough and effective fighters that could deal a crushing blow to the insurgency. But Shiite leaders will also have to allay the fears of Sunnis, who dominated the Iraqi political system under Saddam and make up 20 percent of the population.
With a slight majority of 140 seats in the 275-member parliament that was elected on Jan. 30, the main Shiite clergy-backed United Iraqi Alliance sent its candidate for prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, north to Irbil to negotiate for the support of the Kurds. The alliance needs Kurdish support to build the two-thirds parliamentary majority to elect a president and nominate the prime minister.
One of the most important challenges for the incoming government will be the ongoing violence and the difficulties in training an Iraqi army capable of taking over from American troops.
The deaths Monday of two U.S. soldiers in a vehicle accident in Beiji, 155 miles north of the capital, reported by the military Tuesday, brought the number of deaths among the U.S. military to at least 1,499 since the beginning of the Iraqi war, according to an Associated Press count.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/02/2005 12:44:33 AM ||
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TEL AVIV, Israel - An explosion rocked Tel Aviv on Tuesday night, raising fears that Palestinian militants had carried out a second attack in less than a week. But authorities determined the blast was a criminal act. Israeli rescue workers said one person was seriously wounded in the blast, which occurred near an ice cream shop. No further details were immediately available.
With one million immigrants from the former Soviet Union, Israel is considered a major outpost of Russian organized crime. A string of gangland bombings and shootings, some of which killed or maimed bystanders, have put increased pressure on police already strained by fighting with the Palestinians. In the bloodiest criminal attack, a December 2003 bomb aimed at an alleged crime boss missed the target but killed three passers-by and wounded 18 in Tel Aviv.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/02/2005 12:08:39 AM ||
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#1
Someone missed a protection money payment.
Tsk tsk tsk...
The largest Palestinian university in the Gaza Strip was shut down after hundreds of Fatah-affiliated students tried to lynch the institution's president.
Back in my day we used to just tar and feather 'em...
... guess they weren't happy with just an effigy ...
Sources in Gaza City said the students at Al-Azhar University were angry with the head of the university because he didn't give Fatah enough seats in the newly-established board of directors.
Yep. That'll set 'em off...
They said the students went on the rampage on Monday, destroying furniture and setting fire to several administration offices and classrooms.
Clearly they're well-educated Paleos ...
According to the sources, the rioters then attacked university president Hani Nijem's office while he was inside. Nijem, who was appointed just last week, was forced to hide for nearly three hours as the students tried, unsuccessfully, to break down the door of his office. Palestinian Authority policemen who rushed to the scene battled for hours with the protesters before rescuing Nijem from his office. At least five students were injured during the confrontation and taken to hospital. Yahya Madhoun, a leader of the Fatah-affiliated students on campus, condemned the university administration's decision to suspend studies indefinitely. He said the protest was organized to demand reforms in the university administration and to call for the resignation of Nijem and other top academics.
"We're resignin' youse! Get a rope, Mahmoud!"
The student leader described the university as a Fatah stronghold "that must be preserved at any cost." The administration condemned the perpetrators as "saboteurs" and called on PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to put an end to chaos and lawlessness. Tensions on the campus have been running high since unidentified gunmen murdered professor Yasser al-Madhoun, one of the teachers, late last year. Last week, the Arab-American University in the Jenin area suspended studies for several days after a group of gunmen kidnapped and beat the library director.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/02/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
How many students went to jail? If the PA wants to exert authority that would be a good start. Jail, trials, prison. Cops are of no purpose if they don't do their job.
#5
Kids will be kids and in a region where alot of them never really grown beyond the mentality of the sandbox is it any wonder?!!? When you start saying crap like "at any cost" somebody often ends up paying the highest cost. In alot of ways, they deserve themselves. That's what you get when you allow nasty freaks a little open field running room. God help them.
#6
At Berkeley, we used to just have sit-ins and the occasional riot. Just venues and excuses to meet chicks.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/02/2005 11:17 Comments ||
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#7
Yeah, you can't blame college students rioting on the Sixties, as much fun as that can be. There have been students rampaging through college towns with impunity ever since they first figured out that the clerical exemptions from Medieval secular law covered people studying to be clerics as well. Must have been about five minutes after the establishment of the first university in Paris.
Oh, and by the way - as a representative of the Commonwealth, we want our state abbreviation back. It's our considered opinion that the behavior of the Palestinian Authority has done considerable damage to the trademark "PA".
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
03/02/2005 15:01 Comments ||
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I heard on the news this morning that they've decided it wasn't a political assassination, but a family thing. If so, I'd find that downright comforting, as well as unexpected.
From Drudge.
AN UPDATE/CORRECTION TO THE NBC NEWS REPORT FROM EARLIER THIS EVENING. THE UPDATE BELOW WAS MADE IN ALL THE "NIGHTLY NEWS" BROADCASTS BEGINNING WITH THE SECOND FEED AT 7:00 P.M. THIS EVENING.
Tue Mar 01 2005 20:14:18 ET
BRIAN WILLIAMS INTRO:
Tonight, the violence in Iraq has claimed another victim, a judge, one of the 49-member tribunal responsible for trying former members of Saddam Hussein's regime, including the former president himself. NBC'S Jim Miklaszewski is with us from the Pentagon tonight with more on this. Jim, good evening.
JIM MIKLASZEWSKI REPORTING:
Good evening Brian. U.S. officials tell NBC News late tonight that Barbweez Mahmood and his son were apparently killed in an assassination in Baghdad earlier today. Mahmood, as you said, is one of the 49 judges handling the high profile cases in Iraq -- including that of Saddam Hussein.
Now earlier there was some confusing reports coming out of Baghdad, and U.S. officials told NBC News -- and we reported -- that the initial target of the assassination attempt was Raid Juhi, the chief administration judge who was in fact seen in Saddam Hussein's initial court appearance last July.
Juhi had been the target of several assassination attempts, and was under heavy armed guard. But tonight administration officials tell NBC News that the judge apparently killed earlier today was actually Barbweez Mahmood and his son, and they expect that the Iraqis will make a major announcement shortly. The U.S. officials say that attacks on Mahmood indicate an attack not only on the judge, but on the entire judicial system.
They predict however, that Iraq will continue with the proceedings against Saddam Hussein, which are yet to be scheduled.
Developing...
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/02/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Iraq needs to import some of those special "heart attacks" the Kuwait have for their terrorists.
Maoists have killed eight upper caste men in Vempenta village in Kurnool district in the early hours of yesterday. The incident is being attributed to caste conflict between the dalits and upper castes in the faction-ridden village. According to state police, a group of Maoists descended on the village under Pamulapadu mandal near Nandikotkur town last night. They took away 50 villagers to the forest area on the pretext of talking to them over a local issue. After discussing with them for some time, the Maoists kept them at a secluded place. Suddenly, the dalam (armed squad commander) came in and called the eight men one by one and shot them dead. The other villagers were let off with a warning in the morning.
The police said that the village had a long history of caste conflict between the dalits and the upper castes. In 1998, the Naxalites had killed the village sarpanch belonging to an upper caste. The Naxalites had been supporting the dalits in their fight with upper castes. In the same year, the supporters of the slain sarpanch had killed nine People's War supporters in a retaliatory attack in the village. The victims belonged to dalit community. Ever since, caste conflict has been simmering in the village. The eight persons who were killed yesterday belonged to upper castes. One of them was from Reddy caste. The victims were supporters of the Congress and Telugu Desam Party. The hands and legs of two victims were also chopped off.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/02/2005 8:14:25 PM ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Ukraine's SBU security service arrested a man at Kiev's airport who had a case containing radioactive uranium-238 in his car, the Emergencies Ministry said Tuesday. It said the man was detained at Boryspil airport, Ukraine's main international gateway, with 582 grams of uranium. It did not say when the arrest took place or whether he had been attempting to leave the country. "SBU officers detained the person who was moving a case with a radioactive substance -- Uranium-238 -- in his car," the ministry said in a statement. It said ministry specialists had seized the case. A ministry official said an investigation had been launched. SBU officials were not immediately available for comment. 
A Virginia man accused of joining Al Qaeda and plotting to assassinate President George W. Bush admitted his guilt and pondered hijackings similar to the Sept. 11 attacks, an FBI agent testified. The testimony came at a pretrial hearing Tuesday at which a federal magistrate said 
Recently reported incidents
Despite the fall of the Syrian-backed government, the regime of President Bashar Assad remains determined to stay in Lebanon. Lebanese opposition sources said Syria has not demonstrated any intention of withdrawing either its troops or more than 1 million laborers from Lebanon. The sources said Syrian intelligence has increased its presence around Beirut and was preparing a campaign to undermine stability in the country. On Monday, Lebanon's pro-Syrian government resigned amid massive anti-Syrian protests outside parliament. Prime Minister Omar Karameh would continue to oversee a caretaker government. "Today the government fell," opposition leader Elias Atallah said. "Tomorrow, it's the one huddled in Anjar." 
TRIPOLI: The hometown of outgoing Prime Minister 
A day after forcing the Syrian-backed government to resign, Lebanese protesters returned to the streets of Beirut yesterday, this time demanding the withdrawal of Syrian troops from the country. Politicians began a complicated search for a new premier after two weeks of unprecedented protests forced the government of Prime Minister Omar Karami to step down. Market fears of a political vacuum put the Lebanese pound under intense pressure, forcing the central bank to dip deeply into its foreign exchange reserves to defend the currency.
The largest Palestinian university in the Gaza Strip was shut down after hundreds of Fatah-affiliated students tried to lynch the institution's president. 
Maoists have killed eight upper caste men in Vempenta village in Kurnool district in the early hours of yesterday. The incident is being attributed to caste conflict between the dalits and upper castes in the faction-ridden village. According to state police, a group of Maoists descended on the village under Pamulapadu mandal near Nandikotkur town last night. They took away 50 villagers to the forest area on the pretext of talking to them over a local issue. After discussing with them for some time, the Maoists kept them at a secluded place. Suddenly, the dalam (armed squad commander) came in and called the eight men one by one and shot them dead. The other villagers were let off with a warning in the morning. 
